Top 10 Raspberry Pi Projects For Beginners

Maybe you picked up a Raspberry Pi for the holidays, or you've been sitting on one of the super versatile, palm-sized computers for a while now. If you've been wondering how to get started with yours, or what you could build that's worthwhile, here are ten great ideas.

9. A Photo Booth

What's more fun than taking lots of great photos with your friends when you're all hanging out having a great time? Turn the Pi you've had sitting around for ages into a photo booth designed specifically to capture those awesome moments, and then share them with your friends.

You have choices too - the one above has a touchscreen and a little countdown timer, but if you don't want to go through that much energy, try this simpler version (you don't need the custom box, obviously) that auto-uploads the photos in animated GIF form to a Tumblr account you create for the event — or for your project.

8. A Home Surveillance System

The beauty of the Raspberry Pi is that it's a pocket-sized computer. That means it can go virtually anywhere, like in the garage, near the front door, or anywhere else you need a pair of eyes and have a power outlet. This beginner project will turn your Pi into a home security system in no time.

7. A DIY Arcade Stick

By far one of the most popular Pi projects is an arcade machine, and we'll get to that. We're putting the cart before the horse a little bit and suggesting that you put your retro game console inside an arcade stick, so you can play your favourite old school games on the perfect controller for those games all at once.

The one above uses a classic arcade design, complete with beautiful acrylic, but if you want something a little easier for beginners — complete with a step-by-step instruction video that shows you how to make both the housing and the console itself, this one is perfect for you.

6. A Completely Portable, Digital eBook Library

If ebooks are your thing, and carrying around tons of them — or even sharing them with others — is your jam, this mobile digital library is ideal for keeping, sharing and trading books with your friends. Best of all, it's completely powered by a Raspberry Pi. It's portable and turns your Pi into a Wi-Fi hotspot that others can connect to, find something to read, and grab it to take with them. Isn't sharing wonderful?

5. A Go-Anywhere, Wearable Camera

Maybe you want to chronicle your life, or do one of those "day in the life" experimental videos where someone can walk a mile in your shoes. Maybe you're just planning an awesome hike or bike ride and want to take a video of the whole trip. Well, if you have a Pi, you have a perfect project to capture all the fun. This wearable camera is powered by a Pi and a battery, and is small enough to tuck on a shirt or around your neck on a lanyard.

4. A Whole-Network Ad Blocker, or a Call-Home VPN

If you're a little more tech-inclined, consider this whole-network ad blocker that will protect all the devices and systems on your network from ads, malvertising, and other annoying hover-over and pop-over ads, even on your mobile devices. It's a little work, but it's worth it.

2. A DIY Amazon Echo

Amazon practically wants you to turn your Raspberry Pis into Echo Dots. Seriously, they released the official instructions on how to do so (after people started doing it themselves, of course,) and then not too long ago they unlocked the only thing they held back in the first place — triggering it with a wake word.

Of course, you don't need to go through all of that just to make one yourself. We have you covered in this complete, start to finish guide here — and once you do have one built, you can use it for everything you would normally use an Echo for, from trivia to web searches and more.

1. A Retro Gaming Console

We've teased at it, and covered in the past, but by far our preferred suggestion for beginners is to build your own Raspberry Pi-powered retro game console and play the hell out of your favourite old school titles.

Comments

#11 - Home Theatre Media Player using Kodi (used to be called XBMC) software.

My HTPC died last week so as an interim measure, I grabbed a RasPi 2, downloaded the software and set it up with 2 x 2TB USB external drives, keyboard and mouse. Thought that it would do while I rebuilt the PC. It's been working so well, I'm going to leave it in place.

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